Centerfold Mario

I came up with all sorts of fun headlines for this post before settling on the one above. A few of my favorites: "Eat your heart out, Burt Reynolds" and "Bare-on-bear battle: Burt vs. Mario."

In the end, though, I decided to keep it simple. Plus, it allowed me to use the words centerfold and Mario in the same headline, which I believe I've never done before now (even while prepping the headers for my posts about the "Super Studly Mario Bros.").

As for why I decided to title this post, "Centerfold Mario," I think the following sketch, produced by artist Curtis Bathurst, speaks for itself:



The illustration is an homage to a controversial Burt Reynolds centerfold that appeared in a 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, by the way. If you've never seen said image, check out the post "Super Mario's Birthday Suit" on Bathurst's blog at your earliest convenience.

Dewprism's colorful Princess Mint, courtesy of Curtis Bathurst

I have to admit, I've never played Square's Threads of Fate (aka Dewprism in Japan).

Artist Curtis Bathurst's colorful sketch (below and here) of one of its main characters, Princess Mint, makes me want to track down a copy of this game and finally give it a go.

Have any of you played this PlayStation-based ARPG? If so, do you think it would be worth playing today--11 and 12 years after it was first released (in Japan and North America, respectively)?

(To see more examples of Bathurst's work, check out his Flickr photostream.)

In his dreams: Curtis Bathurst’s Leon the Orchid Hunter HuCard art

Seattle-based artist Curtis Bathurst, who does contract work for a number of area game companies, recently stated on his blog that two of his favorite things are Leon the Orchid Hunter and PC Engine HuCards.

In an attempt to combine those two loves, Bathurst produced the following illustration.

To see more of Bathurst’s stuff, check out his blog, actualpinecone.com, and/or his Flickr photostream.

Note: This post originally appeared on my other gaming blog, iwasateenagepcenginefan.wordpress.com.

An artful look at Bonk's arcade cousin, BC Kid

Like any good Bonk--or, PC Genjin, as he's called in Japan--fan, I consider the character's PC Engine outings to be (basically) the only ones worth my attention. As a result, I've ignored pretty much all of the spin-offs that have been released for the GameBoy, the Famicom and the Super Famicom--I'm just going to ignore the later atrocities--over the years.

I haven't ignored all of the Bonk spin-offs, though; the arcade-only BC Kid, for instance, has always intrigued me despite the fact that it was developed by Kaneko rather than Red and Atlus.

Artist and blogger Curtis Bathurst seems to share my interest in BC Kid, at least as far as the game's aesthetics are concerned. In a recent post, Bathurst critiques the game's promotional art (right) as well as its in-game graphics.

Although he isn't a big fan of either, he ends his post on a positive note saying, "I find it wildly exciting that there was ever a coin-op Bonk’s Adventure and I love rummaging through the ‘net in search of bits and scraps about the game."

If you're at all interested in graphic design--especially as it relates to the world of gaming--I highly recommend heading over to Bathurst's site and reading his post about this quirky quarter-muncher.